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Lake Tüz Golu

Lake Tuz (Turkish: Tuz Gölü meaning Salt Lake) is the second biggest lake in Turkey, located in the Central Anatolia Region, 105 km Northeast of Konya and 150 km South-southeast of Ankara.
It is the second largest lake in Turkey but its surface and water level vary according to the seasons. It reaches its higher level, 1-2 m/3-6 inches at the end of winter, and in summer after evaporation the lake dries out and a wide marsh covered with a 30cm/12 inches salt layer forms. Due to its high salinity (33%), 300 thousand tons of salt are obtained per year.

The evaporates are mainly halite and gypsum, with minor amounts of polyhalite and coelestine. No vegetation in the salt flat. But arable fields and salt-steppes surround the lake. Salt mines and saltwork pools operating in the lake.

As a natural reserve area, the site is well protected. There is virtually no vegetation in the salt flat but arable fields and salt-steppes surround it. There are salt mines and salt work pools operating at the margins of the lake.

Instruments on the Test Site

The site is instrumented with an automatic weather station, GPS, DGPS, ASD FieldSpec3 spectrometer and an automatic sunphotometer. All the meteorological instrumentation is available to all research groups taking part in ground campaigns